Paramedics take a trauma patient off the helicopter on the helicopter pad atop UAB hospital to be taken to the emergency room in this file photo. (The Birmingham News / Tamika Moore)

Alabama is working to plug a deadly hole in the treatment of highway accident and other trauma victims — getting injured patients to the correct hospital.

Half of the state, including metro Birmingham-Hoover, Huntsville and Mobile, is already covered by a state trauma communications system that saves lives. Beginning early next month, 10 counties in east Alabama will join the system, including six with major highways used by Birmingham-area residents on trips to Atlanta, Auburn and Chattanooga.

Without such a system, an estimated 60 percent of injured patients end up in a hospital that can’t properly treat them, and then are transferred to another hospital hours later, Alabama state health officials say. This can mean missing the “golden hour” after trauma, those fleeting minutes when prompt medical treatment gives the best chance of survival from serious injury.

An example would be a car wreck victim with a closed-head injury who was sent to a hospital that lacked a neurosurgeon. If there were bleeding inside the head, he could quickly deteriorate before reaching a surgeon who could help.

The same threat would exist for an accident victim who had two injuries to his long bones — either the upper arms or upper legs — if he were sent to a hospital that lacked an orthopedic surgeon.

Trauma death rates in metro Birmingham have dropped 12 percent since the Birmingham Regional Emergency Medical Service System started its pioneering trauma communication system 13 years ago, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

“This whole system is geared so that no one ever has to be transferred,” said Dr. John Campbell, the department’s EMS and trauma medical director. “They’re always taken to the hospital that can give definitive care immediately, so hundreds of lives can be saved every year.”

Eight volunteer hospitals in the east region have been screened and approved by the state health department, said Choona Lang, a registered nurse and the state trauma administrator.

“We are now installing computers and software to give real-time information on their ability to accept a trauma patient,” she said.

With the system, medics at the accident scene evaluate the patient and contact Alabama Trauma Communications Center, based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. A computer there lists all the trauma hospitals ready to accept patients, and it updates that information every 90 seconds.

“Paramedics (at UAB) will discuss the patient’s injuries and will route the patient to an appropriate hospital,” Lang said. Discussions may also include hospital emergency department staff, trauma surgeons and other caregivers.

After east Alabama joins the system, metro Montgomery and a large swath of west-central and southeast Alabama will be the last areas unprotected.

The state health department hopes to include those counties by the end of the year, making Alabama a model for the nation, Lang said. “No other state that we know of has the statewide, centralized communications center.”

This will be particularly important for travelers on the road. According to the state health department, almost 80 percent of Alabama’s trauma cases come from motor vehicle crashes, and trauma is the leading cause of death in the state for people younger than 45.